There’s clearly some sand missing in Gary Neville’s sandbox, but when he tweeted “Robot!” with a video of Rishi Sunak promoting Thursday’s leadership debate, the former Man United right-back was echoing an increasingly popular concern:
The a-humanity of our politicians.
The way they speak, repeating the name of the person asking a question ad nauseum, holding their hand in a loose fist and the thumb slightly pointing upwards, spending three quarters of their allotted time on not answering the question asked, but to elicit sympathy with the questionnaire’s background or trade by recounting irrelevant anecdotes, smuggling in buzzwords at every given (and not-given) opportunity, moving their hands as if they are remotely controlled by a mechanical puppeteer... This is a charade that became the norm in our political discourse with Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, and has since been adopted by politicians across all parties (the excellent American sitcom “Parks and Recreation” portrayed this persona perfectly in the character of Congressman Murray).
Even though lately, the public has shown that they favour those who deviate from such pretence - think Trump vs Hilary (the embodiment of such non-persona) or Boris vs Theresa May – the virus persists with unyielding obstinacy.
Our “leaders” are now vacuous non-entities without a single principle they are not willing to discard if a Twitter poll revealed it to be unpopular. A collection of automatons with a single objective: Power for power’s sake.
It is in this pile of mud that Kemi Badenoch stands out like a gemstone. Suddenly, we have a politician who echoes Thomas Sowell’s great insight that there are no solutions, only compromises. Who openly acknowledges that we must brace ourselves for a period of hardship as a result of her colleagues’ short-sightism, instead of promising the world and delivering nothing. Who exposes ridiculous, virtue-signalling initiatives like “Net zero by 2050”, by pointing out that none of those making such pledges will be in power in 28 years time, and do not therefore need to bear the consequences of their empty vows.
Any PR firm will tell you that this is a deleterious strategy. But it is the truth. Politicians will not save us or improve our lives – only we can do that, and only Kemi Badenoch affirms this, despite every incentive no to.
She could concoct narratives about quick fixes, like Sunak or Truss, or play the childish “I told you so”-game, like Tugendhat, who risked nothing to tell anyone anything. She could let social media be her compass, like Penny Mordaunt, and jump on the woke bandwagon, thinking it is what the public wants. But Badenoch does something extraordinarily rare; she sticks to the truth.
She does not apologise for her convictions, such as Britain not being a “systemic racist” country, or that children should not be indoctrinated with divisive nonsense like Critical Race Theory, even though she is bombarded with abuse on social media for it. Unlike the other candidates on the ballot, Kemi Badenoch does not seem to think that avoiding an avalanche of angry tweets is worth compromising her convictions for.
She spoke up against Westminster's ingrained culture of nepotism over meritocracy and promised she would not succumb to the disease – this alone distinguishes her from the likes of Sunak and Truss, who both have been the beneficiaries of the practice. While other politicians’ friends are granted shiny new titles at every reshuffle, Badenoch promises best person for the job instead.
Many of my fellow “Kemists” say she is the best hope against a Labour resurgence, that she is the Left’s nightmare. Personally, I could not care less and do not think that should be why anyone vote for Ms. Badenoch. Rather, it is because she represents the only feasible alternative to the business-as-usual options we have on both sides of the aisles.
In Badenoch, we suddenly have the opportunity for actual change, not just in leadership but in politics. Like Thatcher before her, Badenoch does not obsess about being liked, as if being Prime Minister is a popularity contest, but as someone who is willing to pay the price of being honest.
They say we get the leaders we deserve. But as an immigrant to these shores, who loves Britain and her people with every fibre of my being, I disagree. We deserve better than the cronyists, the non-personas, the programmed drones. We deserve better than empty promises, the abject drought of principles and disciplines, and those who seek power for power’s sake.
Kemi Badenoch is the only candidate who breaks this spell and, as such, only one worthy of being the next Prime Minister of this Great Britain.
Amir Pars
London,
16th July, 2022